Death row inmate, Ebhos to be released after 19 years in prison

A death row inmate, Thankgod Ebhos is to be to be released from Benin prison, Edo State after 19 years of waiting for the hang man.

His release order has been signed by Governor Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State in  exercise of his power of Prerogative of Mercy as outlined under Section 212 of the Nigerian Constitution.

Mr Ebhos is one of nine prisoners whose release order was approved to commemorate Nigeria’s 54th Independence Day celebration.

Ebhos came into the limelight in June 2013 when he narrowly escaped execution alongside the famous four inmates of Benin prison after their death sentence warrants were signed by the Edo State governor, Mr Adams Oshiomhole.

Thankgod, the fifth inmate, was actually taken to the gallows but was not hanged unlike the

four who did not escape the hangman’s noose.

The campaign for Thankgod’s Ebhos release began with the intervention of the international human rights organisation, Avocats Sans Frontieres France (ASF France) on the platform of their death penalty project, Saving Lives, SALI.

The pro bono team of SALI lawyers forestalled further threat of execution by immediately filing for an injunction at the ECOWAS community court of justice.

In February, the ECOWAS court ruled in Thankgod’s favour by granting the injunction and ordering the Federal Government to remove his name from the death row list.

The final judgment from the same court on June 10, 2014, reiterated the order to take off Thankgod’s name from death row.

The court at that time stressed that any attempt to execute Thankgod while his appeal was still pending at the Court of Appeal would be a gross violation of his right to appeal as contained in section 6(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR. Thankgod was sentenced to death by a military tribunal in 1995 and has been on death row for 19 years. The Family of the released convict expressed joy at the news.